The Shenzhou people created a furnace house and a silver trumpet in Beijing
Geng Yanqin
(Note: This article is selected from the public account "Wenshang Hengshui")
Since the Qing Dynasty, Hengshui people have come to Beijing to make a living, although there are many people who lead cars to sell pulp, but there is no shortage of industry leaders. During the Daoguang years, Lu Tianbao, a lonely city man directly under Shenzhou, founded a Jiuju furnace house in Beijing Jewelry City and minted silver two. Lu Tianbao, the character Shao Zhou, known as Lu Laoshao, is the founder of the Beijing furnace housing industry. At that time, there was a saying that "if you want to open a furnace room, first find Lu Laoshao".
Jewelry Market Street is a concentrated area of furnace houses (workshops approved by the officials to cast silver ingots), and Qianshi Hutong is the narrowest hutong in Beijing on the west side of Jewelry Market Street on the north side of the east end of Dashilar, only 55 meters long, with an average width of 0.7 meters, and only 0.4 meters at the narrowest point. There are nine groups of buildings facing north and south in the hutong, and the westernmost courtyard has a canopy, and next to the canopy is the "money market" of silver and money traded by the Qing Dynasty officials.
In the Qing Dynasty, there were different flat grains and colors throughout the country, and the money and grain collected were released to the provincial treasury of the clan division. There is a treasury ambassador under the provincial treasury, and the treasury ambassador must pass the provincial furnace room when accepting the acceptance. The color of the silver ingots handed over to the central government by various provinces is also inconsistent, and must be chiseled or tested, and these matters are all undertaken by the Beijing official furnace house. The difference between the official and private furnace rooms is that the official furnace room must be registered with the household department and accept the business assigned by the household department. The Beijing Official Furnace House, approved by the Ministry of Households, converted the fifty-two silver pieces of silver from each province into twelve silver ingots of the same color, that is, "ten small treasures of full color", which was convenient for handing over to the silver treasury of the Ministry of Households for the purpose of paying salaries. People say that the furnace house is a half-official and half-merchant business, and because it is responsible for the casting and testing of the household department, it has a special relationship with the national treasury.
1. The signboard and scale process of the furnace room
The city sign hanging on the front of the beijing furnace door is a wooden plaque with a blue gold edge symbolizing silver ingots, and a curtain is tied underneath, and the wooden plaques are written with the words "pouring silver two" and "scattered into ingots".
The furnace room is equipped with balances, hammers, chisels, clippers, silver bowls, crucibles, silver molds, etc. Hammers and chisels are used to cut treasures. Silver bowls, crucibles, silver stoves, and silver molds are used for casting. The silver bowl is small and the crucible is large, and it is selected according to the number of transformations. Because there is no ear, it must be clamped with iron tongs. The silver process is to first cut the simulated loose silver into pieces, weigh the full amount and put it in the basket, after the furnace is opened, the silver is poured into the molten silver pot (special refractory clay pot), and then the silver liquid floating impurities are beaten with long incense, and the silver pot is clamped with pliers and placed in the furnace. After melting, the silver can is clipped out, a little nitrate is added, and then the silver liquid floating impurities are beaten off with long incense, poured into the predetermined iron mold, the left and right swings are "looking for wings", and then the center is turned into ribbed, condensed into ingots, so it is also called silver.
There are many furnace houses in Beijing, the 26 furnace houses in the jewelry city have the most credit, the largest influence in the financial industry, and all the silver money markets are set by the jewelry market as the standard. Except for two or three "Shandong houses" who operate official furnace houses, the rest are people from the "Deep Ji Prefecture" (referring to The Deep County Ji County) in the south of Beijing, so the furnace house line can be called the traditional business of "Deep Ji Prefecture".
The west side of the jewelry city road is the furnace house, the east side of the road is a wooden shed, and after the market is down, it is cast in public under the east shed of the road. The jewelry trade, often thousands of dollars, is a big consumption place for silver and silver, the furnace room is located there, and the exchange dumping can be described as a near-water building.
2. Furnace houses run by Shenzhou people
During the Daoguang years, Lu Tianbao founded the Jiuju Furnace House, which initially belonged to the family handicraft workshop, which was operated by father, son, uncle and nephew successively. Later, it gradually developed, such as Fuju (Lu Tianbao), Wanju, Quanju (Li Hengchang), Zengsheng, Zengmao, Juzeng, Deshun and other furnace houses, all of which were opened by the Lu family and relatives. There are also Tian Xiaoting's Juyi furnace room, Geng Yadu's Yu Fengyuan, Qian Herui and so on. After the long-term gathering furnace room was changed to a repolying furnace room, after the full gathering was changed to a fully concentrated furnace room, and the increase was changed to an increasingly prosperous furnace room. Quanju No., later changed to Quanju Thick Furnace House, Address Jewelry City, Deacon Bian Liquan, Specialized Outer Pavilion (doing Mongolian traders) and Yili Gang (doing Xinjiang traders); Juzeng, that is, Juzeng Furnace House, address Jewelry City, Deacon Xia Shutai; Juyi No., that is, Juyi Furnace House, Address Jewelry City, Deacon Tian Zhongshan; Wanju Number, i.e. Wanju Furnace Room, Address Jewelry City, Deacon Liu Yunqi; Zengsheng Ju, that is, Zengsheng Ju Furnace Room, Address Jewelry City, Deacon Li Qingfeng; Zengmao Furnace Room, Address Jewelry City, Deacon Liang Yuchun, Specialized in the official wood factory (that is, the Xinglong wood factory that generally undertook the construction of the Summer Palace, etc.); the national craftsman Longju, that is, the Longju Number, addressed the east of the South Shou Road of the Cloth Alley outside the front door, and was opened by Zhang Dongchen, a merchant from Shenzhou.
Juyi furnace house since the qing Xianfeng six years (1856) opened, the initial only silver furnace room, followed by additional deposits and loans, and then by the treasurer Shenzhou lonely city village people Tian Xiaoting hard work, began to take shape. When the Eight-Nation Alliance entered Beijing, it was looted and burned down, and only four lintels remained after the disaster. Tian Xiaoting's dismal operation, day and night planning, spare no effort, accumulated labor into illness, and finally after 12 years, accumulated 150,000 taels of houcheng (provident fund). In 1931, the "918" incident, the northeast fell, and various industries in Beijing suffered a huge impact. The furnace room was changed to a silver trumpet, and only seven remained, and the Juyi silver number survived.
In 1935, Japan sabotaged the finance of North China, ran on legal tender, and bought copper dollars at high prices, so that the Bank of Hebei Province and the Agricultural and Industrial Bank of China both ran a wave of cash, and the two banks of cccc tightened the issuance of legal tender, resulting in a tight monetary root in the market and a halt in hundreds of industries. Tongyuanxiang, Quanjuhou, Xiangruixing, Jushengyuan, Wanfeng, Wanxing and other silver trumpets closed down at the same time. At this time, only one Juyi Silver family remained, because of the deposits of the old Northwest Army personnel, the strength was strong, and it was not affected by the pond fish. After the "July 7 Incident", the Japanese secret service agency took the old Northwest Army personnel from the Juyi Silver to deposit more than 800 taels of gold, and the current foreign and deposits totaled about 600,000 yuan. Manager Wang Zhenting invited Chang Zhujiu, manager of Dazhong Bank, to cooperate with and add shares, which was changed to Juyi Bank. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Nationalist government stipulated that all those who opened during the period of the fall would be suspended. As a result, Juyi Bank ceased operations in September 1946.
3. Geng Yadu and the Public Council
The Office of the Public Representatives has emerged for a number of reasons. First of all, during the Qing Dynasty and the Guangxu years, after China opened up a number of treaty ports, the population of Beijing gradually increased, the transactions were frequent, and the currency in circulation increased, and it was necessary to solve the inconvenience caused by the different silver ingots in various provinces in the circulation market. Secondly, it is extremely inconvenient because of the different names, colors, and flatness of the two silvers in the Beijing Jiaoku. When the local provinces went to Beijing to pay the treasury tax and silver, the treasury officials extorted and withheld words and tried everything to make things difficult, so that the bank officials who had stayed in Beijing for half a year still failed to return to the province to sell the difference. Third, in the early years of Guangxu, the molten silver ingots in the Beijing furnace room had 5 two, 10 two, 50 two, 100 two and other specifications. However, from the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), only 10 silver ingots of the Beijing scale were melted, and it was necessary to identify the color of the recast silver ingots.
The establishment of the Public Council is also a way to alleviate the ills of the industry. There are many tricks to cheat in the furnace room, mainly in various aspects of flatness, color enhancement, and weighing. Beijing General Pingli, there are Jing Gongzu, Sanliu Kuping, Erqi Jingping, Erliu Jingping, Erliu Jingping and so on. Silver consumption, Beijing full than Tianjin Baibao every thousand two consumption of three two, compared to Shanghai two seven treasures per thousand two consumption of one or two. In addition to the use of color appreciation, adding and subtracting names, etc., the furnace room also has methods of filling lead, lying copper, mixing and so on as a forgery to deceive, thus winning the title of "silver devil". As time went on, the market grew tired of suffering, and the furnace houses were entangled with each other.
In view of the above reasons, in the thirty-second year of Guangxu (1906), the furnace houses negotiated, and The Chief Manager of yufengyuan, Qian and Rui Furnace Houses, Geng Yadu, a Shenzhou native, applied to organize the Public Council Bureau, based on 26 official furnace houses, unified system, mutual supervision, together with responsibility. On behalf of the ministry of silver, where other provinces to pay the silver two, unified to the jewelry city furnace room. The products poured by each family weigh 1205 yuan in the city, full of color, stamped with this number, and sent to the Public Council for appraisal. Those who pass the test are stamped with "full of public consultation", otherwise the degree branch refuses to accept it. After the application was approved, 26 official furnace houses set up a public council, each of which jointly funded the purchase of a small building in the east of jewelry city road, and each of the 4 furnace houses sent one or two people every day, who took turns to be on duty in the public council in the morning and afternoon, in charge of the business, responsible for reviewing whether the silver ingots made by each house reached full color, and those who were insufficient in color returned, and the qualified party marked the "full public discussion" stamp stored in the public council bureau. Audited by 26 companies. Thereafter, the degree branch handed over the messenger, which was handled in accordance with this provision, and a standard silver sample of the degree branch was also deposited. The silver ingots made in the small furnace house need to be reviewed by the Public Council, and the "full public discussion" and a furnace house stamp must be added before they can be circulated according to the full silver. At the time of review, a stamping fee of 1,000 taels is paid.
After the Republic of China, in order to unify the management of the furnace house, the Ministry of Finance set up an appraisal bureau, of which 3 appraisers: Meng Zhaoshan, a native of Shenxian County, 43 years old, 40 yuan per month; Zhao Baochen, 38 years old, Hengshui people, 40 yuan per month; Li Fangnian, 43 years old, Shandong Deping people, 40 yuan per month.
With the passage of time, the tide of the former silver money market has disappeared from the historical stage, and the successor Shenzhou people have also continued to write their own wealth stories on the land of Shenzhou, which has lasted for a long time.
About the Author:
Geng Yanqin: Vice Chairman of Hengshui Writers Association and President of Novelists Society. He has published novels such as "Sword and Guts Qin Heart" and "Pan CangHai", and presided over the compilation of books on the humanistic history of Shenzhou, such as "Liu Xiu Walks Deep State", "Shenzhou Context", "Eternal Youth in Shenzhou Middle School", "Master Fa Zun and Fa Zun Temple", "Dream Chaser" on the theme of Shenzhen Trade Union, and founded the Shenzhen Literary Quarterly "Peach Blossom Garden".